EUGENE, Ore. — It has been raining off and on all day, but the city of Eugene hasn’t really taken any sort of break from making sure the roads stay clear as the storms move in.

Public Works crews spent the day clearing out catch basins all over town. Going street to street, they unclogged as many drains as they could. While this is something they do year-round, this time of year it’s especially important to take care of before the onslaught of storms.

“Doing it before, we keep everything open. So when we do get the heavy rains like we did last week, the impact is minimal. If we don’t go out there and do this then there’s debris clogging everything, and we do get a lot of flooding,” Ed Reynolds, Eugene Public Works Manager.

The city is asking you to keep the leaves off the road until its scheduled pick-up in order to help prevent the drains from becoming stopped up.

The clogged basins aren’t just an issue for public works, but police say they can cause problems on the road too.

The flow of water onto the streets can cause hazardous driving. They’re asking folks to be extra cautious in areas like downtown where they see high water most often.